Live well

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. The new series of Black Mirror on Netflix is excellent and quite sinister at times. It might just make you rethink how you use the internet and technology!
    
2. I really enjoyed Jon Ronson's new short book The Elephant In The Room. It's a quick read on the Trump campaign, conspiracy-theorist-extraordinaire Alex Jones and the alt-right. I'm a big fan of Jon Ronson's writing. If you haven't read The Psychopath Test already, I'd recommend that too.
    
3. Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs via (one of my favourite places on the internet) Brain Pickings. His thoughts on creativity and the cross-pollination of ideas are worth reflecting on.
    
4. "For as long as we've been keeping records, human beings have been on alert for the differences that divide us. Then we fixate on those differences, amplifying them, ascribing all sorts of irrelevant behaviors to them. Until, the next thing you know, we start referring to, 'those people.'" Differences by Seth Godin.
    
5. A fun perspective on AI and robotics. I particularly like the Robert Heinlein quote towards the end — What can people do better than machines? The view from 1951.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

Ipswich by night

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. You'll never hear sport in the same way again — The Sound of Sports.
    
2. A really cool interview with Barack Obama on AI, self-driving cars and the future of the world.
    
3. These two episodes of the podcast 'Criminal' are incredible. An insane (but true) story of fraud, family and pyschopathy. Episode 51: Money Tree | Episode 52: The Checklist
    
4. "It Only Takes Six Seconds To Hear The World's Most Sampled Song" — The fascinating story of The Amen Break.
    
5. Everyone wants to be more productive... right? Read this article by Cal Newport (author of this great book) and thank me later.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

A little bird told me

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. Two great pieces on having ideas. A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas and How to have an idea (this one's my favourite!)
    
2. More wisdom from Seth Godin (he's a regular feature here!). The chance of a lifetime.
    
3. I often like to try to imagine what the future will be like. Where technologies like artificial intelligence, driverless cars and virtual reality will take us, and how they'll change our lives. Last week, I came across the article 'Speak, Memory'. It's a fascinating read about something I'd not given much thought to at all. How the technologies that help shape our lives, change our relationship with death. It might sound morbid, but it's a brilliant piece that's well worth reading. — "When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence"
    
4. Anohni on art, corporations and the music industry. Her thoughts on the state of the music industry particularly resonated with me. (Don't be put off by the weird text formatting or colour scheme of the website!)
    
5. "Yes!" to all of these. 33 thoughts on reading by Austin Kleon.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

Think Love.

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. I'm a big fan of The Oatmeal Comics and this one, How To Be Perfectly Unhappy, is my new favourite. I really like this one too.
    
2. I've been following Jessica Walsh of design firm Sagmeister & Walsh on Instagram for quite a while ago but recently discovered her #creativestyleandvoice and #jessicasamamondays posts. If you consider yourself to be a 'creative type' (or want to be!) they are worth checking out.
    
3. I'd been on the hunt for a decent water bottle that didn't leak everywhere for quite a while (though not very hard!) and last week stumbled across GiveMeTap. For every bottle that is purchased, 20% goes towards building water pumps in Africa. It's a pretty cool idea and is hopefully making a real difference. You can learn more about their projects here or grab yourself a bottle (with a little discount) here.
    
4. I've listened to this song by Du Blonde probably close to 20 times in the last two days. The first minute doesn't do much for me but the last minute is so great. Samuel T. Herring's vocals make the song for me. Pretty epic. (You can now make that close to 25 times).
    
5. Derek Sivers hits the nail on the head again. — Why are you doing?

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

The Busker

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. I agree with pretty much everything in this article. ‘Streaming exclusives’ are really not good for fans and surely not a good long term strategy if they end up driving people back to torrenting music. 
    
2. I love this Hugh Laurie quote. 
   
   “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”
    
3. Hozier’s ‘Take Me To Church’ was one of my favourite pop songs (I use that term loosely!) from last year. I’d completely forgotten about this music video featuring the dancer Sergei Polunin. He’s an incredible dancer and a fascinating guy. 
    
4. I really enjoyed this conversation on the Invention Of Photography from Radio 4’s In Our Time. It’s not something I’d spent much time thinking about but a really interesting topic. This History Of Photography In 40 Photos is pretty cool too.
    
5. I’m nearly always focused on learning something new (more on my current learning projects here). I’m currently working my way through CreativeLive’s excellent Fundamentals of Digital Photography course. If you are into photography (like me) I highly recommend it. Every CreativeLive course I have done has been well worth the money, it’s a brilliant resource.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!